The invention relates to a sealing device comprising a slide ring elastically prestressed against a counterring for sealing, the slide ring and counterring having sliding surfaces allowing relative rotation between the two. The counterring is relatively immovably affixed to a shaft. The slide ring, on the side facing away from its sliding surface, is sealed relative to a retaining ring by a sealing element of elastomeric material. The retaining ring is biased by a compression spring away from a housing which has an essentially C-shaped cross-section open in the direction of the slide ring.
Such a sealing device is known from German Patent Document 39 27 589 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,719. The sealing element overlaps a large part of the slide ring in the axial direction and is pressed, under prestressing, against the slide ring by a first retaining ring which forms a first abutment for the compression spring. The sealing element has a shape adapted to the shape of the housing, with an essentially C-shaped cross-section that is open axially in the direction of the slide ring. As a second abutment for the compression spring, a second retaining ring is provided within the sealing element. Because of the design and the arrangement of the sealing element within the housing, the axial dimension of this previously known sealing device is comparatively large. In particular for applications where the axial length of the installation space is very short, this previously known sealing device is not very satisfactory.